So Where Do I Start

By Ani Alexander

Today I’d like to talk to you about something that comes up quite often. These days I am being approached by people who, just like me few years ago are starting from scratch. No one knows them yet, they have not produced anything yet and they want to start but don’t know from where and how. And I can totally understand why they are confused. These days there is so much information on the internet. There are already many courses, podcasts, books, videos, tutorials and new ones are emerging with each day. So many choices, so many “gurus”. Who is the best? Which information is really valuable? Newbies get an overdose. Many end up consuming almost everything out there. I am sure some of you have bought online courses you never actually used, bought books you never read and downloaded a podcast episode, which you did not listen to. And with the ones you did… did you take action and apply the knowledge? Probably not… What confuses people even more is that there are many opinions and advice that contradict each other. One expert tells you the best proven method to do something and the other expert tells you the exact opposite. So what should you do? Well, maybe it would be best to start with the idea that there is no one magic button, no one solution fits all, no copy and paste template to follow. Many tend to market their courses by saying “I have made xxxx dollars in a month, let me show how exactly did I do that”. That might be true… or not, but that’s not the point. What is more important is that one has to realize that even if you copy the same strategy you may not get the same results. There are so many additional and not so obvious variables that play a role in the success… and some are impossible to duplicate… for example the personality factor, the fact that the guy might have already had strong network and connections in his niche and many others. Ok Ani, now you confused me even more you may think. Now where do I start anyway? The funny thing is that here too we have 2 completely contradicting options. And both sides claim that those worked perfectly well for them. Many say that when you are starting from scratch, before doing anything else you should choose your niche and come up with your ideal audience avatar. By knowing what your audience needs you end up providing content, service, product for them which resonates with you and your stuff, which leads to engagement, loyalty and success… On the other hand many others claim that you should decide what your passion is, what’s your main message and what you want to do and just do it. Be yourself and those who resonate with you will come and gather around you. So basically the short version of it is the expression - your vibe attracts your tribe. I have seen both methods to work. And in that respect you have a choice. It’s up to you which route you wanna take. But there is one thing in common: no matter which option you choose you will need to create content. Creating content is something I truly believe in and I think that most of the different successful strategies do have digital content creation as their core part. And what usually happens? As I said in the beginning, many end up being trapped in consuming content. They consume everything, accumulate knowledge, get contradicting advice and end up in a never ending circle of content consumption. And that itself results into never starting producing content. Many people only think about writing a book, starting a blog, recording a podcast. They wait till the ideal moment comes. They wait till they are ready. Until they learn everything they need to know about the subject. But guess what? There is no ideal moment! You will never be ready and there will always be things which you won’t be able to learn until you actually start doing things. Also… You will keep staying an invisible consumer, because until you actually produce your own stuff and put it out there. People won’t know that you even exist. So I guess my short answer to all those who ask me where to start is… Start by producing your very first original piece of content online. Simple as that. A small blog post, a short recorded episode, just few paragraphs of a story, a short video… anything you prefer. Simply do it. Don’t consume media - become one yourself! Hope this will make you look at things from another perspective and will encourage you to finally start acting. If you have not done anything yet then this is the perfect time. Go and produce something today! - but before that if you have a minute, please subscribe to the Brand Architect podcast on iTunes and leave me a review. Have a productive day and I’ll come to you with more in the next episode!